The Adjudicator's Institute for Heroics

"Welcome to the club," Dawn sighed from the open bathroom. "I slept in the worst position, too, so now everything aches," she complained. She tried washing her face in the sink, but that just made her cold.
"I dunno. Maybe he got up early. Right now we've only got..." Dawn checked the clock, "twenty minutes before some of our classes start."

"Crud...today's going to be a mess, isn't it?" Sage wriggled out of bed like a tired worm, collapsing into a puddle on the floor. With a deep breath, she heaved herself upright, one hand landing on the still-sleeping Avery. "Wake up! Class is in twenty minutes!"
"Urghh..." Avery's eyes opened slowly, blinking up at Sage like those of a mole suddenly exposed to light. Her long black hair was a tangled mess, still stuck with bits of leaves and vines. "...Already? But it feels like I just fell asleep..."
She sat up slowly, cracking her back in a symphony of stiff pops. She hadn't even bothered to change her shirt from the night before.
"I hope nothing bad happens today," Avery grunted, shuffling toward the bathroom. "I don't think I could handle it in this condition."
"Shush, you'll jinx it!" Sage hissed, only half joking. "Oogh, my bones hurt.."

Dawn stared at herself in the mirror. She couldn't even recognize who she was staring at. Where did Dawn Louise Whitlock go? Where was the happy young woman who loved studying plants, staying outside all day just to soak in the sun, and who's mother truly loved her? Did she ever exist, or was she an illusion of lies and loyalty?

She stared into the mirror, and saw... nothing. She wasn't a Whitlock anymore.
Besides, Louise was her mother's name, too.

She was just Dawn, and she had no idea who Dawn was. Gazing at the person in front of her, bruised physically and battered emotionally, all she saw was a hollow shell fed fear her entire life. It just felt like everything was a waste, and that all the time spent laughing with her friends, with Sam, was pointless.

Soon, she realized that as she kept staring at the mirror, she kept noticing all the other imperfections. Like that acne spot... or the gap in her front teeth since she was small (her mother said it was a waste of time to fix then called it "cute")... or how she couldn't tell her moles from the millions freckles littered her skin... Dawn shook her head. The longer she stayed there, the more tired she got.

She lumbered through the room like a sleepwalking giant. She handed Avery a brush as she made her way to their desk. "I'm... not going to classes today." Slowly, she opened the folder. "I'll just look over this, maybe spy on some students, see what my mom likes about those with a 95, patterns..." Dawn yawned loudly as she rubbed her eyes, "Just... bring me whatever homework when you can find me."

"I can stay with you," Avery offered, dragging the brush through her tangled mat of hair. "It's probably going to take me a long time to get this knot out, anyway, and I don't want to go to class with a rat's nest."
"I can stay, too!" Sage added. "I think it's more important that we get this thing figured out than go to class. Besides, nobody's going to care if we got an A in Geography once this is all over. They're going to care about whether we survived or not."
"A...dark sentence, but true," Avery nodded, wincing as the brush caught on a particularly stubborn knot. "We should stick together. Safety in numbers, right? Speaking of which, where's Evan? I thought he was sleeping in the bed above Sage."
Just then, Evan himself creaked open the door. "Oh, you guys are awake."
"Where have you been?" Sage asked. "We were starting to get worried! You haven't been out all night, have you?"
"...Maybe," Evan said slowly. "But I promise I was being safe! I just...went to spy on the Adjudicator a bit."
"WHAT!?" Avery cried. "Spying on the Adjudicator? In the dead of night? What part of that do you call 'safe'?!"
"I was invisible!" Evan insisted. "And I had Astrid with me. We didn't go into the room--we just looked into it. And we found some pretty important stuff. Izzy and Powder are working with the Adjudicator, and she's trying to transplant Sam's powers into one of them!"

"What? No, no," Dawn assured, "Even if we live or die, education is important! I'll be fine on my own."
Despite her words, there was a flutter in her heart. What was it about those two that made them stick to her like glue? "But... I can't stop you. Strength in numbers, after all."

Dawn's jaw dropped as Avery cried out. Well, now all of Avery's concerns over Evan made much more sense. "You spied on my mom!?" Dawn said, "What if someone saw you?! You'll be labeled a weirdo at best and expelled at worst!"
It only got worse from there. First, a kid none of them knew. Second... the Adjudicator was doing what?

It took Dawn a full minute to take that in. She suddenly clasped her hand over her mouth.
"I think I'm actually gonna be sick."

"Nobody's going to see me," Evan replied indignantly. "I can turn invisible, remember? Besides, who cares if I'm expelled? It's not like I've been particularly useful."
"That's not true," Avery objected. "You got the file off the Adjudicator's desk! That was useful."
Evan raised his eyebrows at her. "Small redemption for the trouble I caused. I started this whole debacle, remember?"
"Doesn't matter," Sage snapped. "The Adjudicator was doing this long before you came along. Your actions just happened to uncover her work more obviously. Stop being so down on yourself--it's getting annoying. Being depressed is like, your only character trait."
Evan sighed, slumping into the corner.
"First Astrid calls me ugly, now this," he muttered to himself.
"Oh, be quiet," Sage grunted. "We have bigger problems than you boo-hooing all over yourself."
"Sage!" Avery cried. "What's gotten into you?"
"This pathetic little worm is what's into me," Sage snarled, pointing at Evan. "All he does is whine, whine, whine. Well, get over yourself! The world doesn't revolve around you!"
"I'm sorry, Evan, it must be the mind control," Avery apologized, moving between her brother and Sage. "Poisoned food, remember?"
"I am not being mind controlled!" Sage cried, lip curled in exasperation. "I'm just over his stupid moaning! Ohh, I'm so sad. Ohh, I hate myself so much. Look at me, everyone! I'm depressed! Go touch grass or something. Soak in the sunlight. Your pasty ass looks like it needs it. You're not the only one with things to worry about, you know!"
"Sage, that's enough," Avery stated firmly, glaring down at her friend. "Sit down, and relax. We're all under a lot of stress right now. Just...take a few deep breaths, okay?"
She turned to her brother. "I'm sorry. I really am. You know she's not usually like this..."
"No, it's fine," Evan sat up, placing his hands on his knees. "She's right, I've spent a lot of time bogging myself down. It's about time I did something more productive. Now, what did you say about the files, Dawn?"

Although Dawn's stomach was still doing backflips, she was shocked (almost amazed) by Sage. She never knew Sage had that in her. It wasn't a bad thing, but... it was certainly unexpected.
By the end of it, Dawn was just staring at Sage. "I... Gosh, um," she mumbled, turning to Avery and Evan. Did Sage have other keen words for the rest of them?

"Oh, um, well," Dawn started again, "I've noticed a bit of a pattern, I guess. My mom likes people who can easily spy on others. She has positive comments on Evan despite the grade, and- You met Astrid?- Well, anyways, they can look through water, and then the next 95 is some little girl who can control toys. I-I haven't looked at the other two yet, but it's something, right?"

"Right," Evan nodded. Between Astrid's blunt comments and Sage's outburst, he had to admit his ego was a little bruised. But it was probably for the best. He wasn't being very helpful when he spent half his time moping, was he? This was much more important than whatever he thought of himself...nevertheless, he found himself a little stung. As Sage sat down beside Avery, he cast her a narrow half-glare out of the corner of his eye.

Sage crossed her arms, glaring back at Evan with ferocity. He was right--he'd been nothing but trouble this whole time. He was lucky he was so useful, or she'd have tied him up and stuck him in a closet a long time ago.
"You're too soft and reassuring with him," she whispered to Avery. "He knows he'll get compliments from you if he's down on himself. You should start agreeing with him--that'll shut him up."
"Shush," Avery hissed. "I'm just about done with you, too. If you guys can't get along, we're all screwed."
"Well, maybe it's about time you started doing something about it!" Sage cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "He's your brother, after all!"
"I'm not going to parent him like a little child," Avery rounded on her, a thunderous expression on her usually mild face. "He's sixteen! He can take care of himself."
"Clearly," Sage rolled her eyes. "He's been doing so well thus far."

"Hey, um, you guys?" Dawn whispered, holding the folder close to her chest. She had no idea what to do now. Her friends were supposed to be, well, friends! They weren't supposed to argue like this! They weren't supposed to put Avery's brother down like that!

She kept trying to calmly assess the situation, trying to get a word in, but clearly that wasn't going to work. Not while Sage was so... not like herself...

"Guys!" Dawn said, stomping her foot. Just to be sure, she had some harmless petals pop into Sage's mouth and hoped she wouldn't choke. "Arguing over Evan isn't doing anything except making us argue! So what if Evan's sad? He lost his best friend!" Dawn pointed at Sage, "If I lost Avery suddenly, would you get on me for feeling down about it?!"

Dawn took a deep breath, trying to push that thought out of her mind. "Sage, this isn't like you. S-So," she swallowed hard. Being stern wasn't her strong-suit. "So, um, stop causing a problem before we lock you in the bathroom and wait for you to spit out some black goo stuff," she said, before whimpering a tiny, "please."

Sage blinked. It was hard to tell what was going on in her head as she stared up at Dawn, mouth full of petals.
"I've already told you, I'm not mind-controlled!" she cried, spitting the little bits of flower out of her mouth. "I'm just fed up!"
"Exactly what a mind-controlled person would say," Avery muttered, jabbing an accusing finger at Sage's shoulder. "You need to calm down. If this is the real Sage, stop acting like such a jerk!"
"Get over yourself," Evan grunted pointedly. "You're not the only one with things to worry about, you know."
Sage flinched as her own words were thrown back in her face.
"Fine," she growled, hunching her shoulders like a cornered animal. "But don't say I didn't warn you when this whole thing falls apart."

Was it bad that Dawn almost found this insulting? She was entering a major crisis on who she was and will be, and Sage was mad about Evan?! "We'll only fall apart if we keep fighting like this," Dawn said, taking a deep breath, "The only reason we're even in this situation is that my mom is trying to get rid of people she sees as unworthy. Let's just... redirect our anger there, for now."

Dawn slowly sat on her bed. "We're all fed up, and- and," she choked up on her words. This was all getting so mixed up and scared and she desperately just wanted a hug. "I just... Look, we have the names and faces of people my mom might want to spy on us, and she probably knows that folder was stolen and wants us dead now, so can we just pull together some sort of plan?"

All she wanted was for her friends to get along and... "Why do we even stay here? Maybe we should just get out here. There's got to be some way to get past that wall. I mean, how else do we get food here?" At this point, leaving was what Dawn wanted most. They were all old enough to get a job, they could pile money and get a place together and forget any of this ever happened! Sure, there would be a big news story and they'd be leaving a bunch of kids in danger... and her mom would probably hunt her down, but if they stayed low enough, it'd be fine! Right? Anything had to be better than staying here...

"True..." Avery murmured. She had one hand placed firmly on Sage's shoulder, holding her in place. "But...we'd be leaving so many people behind...we can't do that, can we?"
"At this point we might not have a choice," Evan pointed out. "A gaggle of teenagers against the whole of the Institute's staff...we'll be lucky if we make it out of here in one piece, let alone with the entirety of the student body."
"What'll they do, though?" Avery wondered, forehead creased with worry. "We still don't know what the Adjudicator plans to do. What if she turns them all into an army of superpowered, mindless soldiers? We can't just leave them!"
"But--" Evan began before he was interrupted by a small choking sound from Sage. A small line of black goop dribbled out of the side of her mouth.
"There it is!" Avery wiped the liquid off Sage's chin. "I was starting to get worried."
The botani-kinetic blinked slowly, like she had just woken up from a long nap.
"W-where am I?" she burbled, squinting around.
"Welcome to the club," Avery smiled sadly. "You just got mind-controlled."
"Oh no," Sage snapped awake, eyes wide. "What did I do?"

Dawn chuckled sheepishly, "Eh, you didn't do anything bad. You just... said a lot of stuff about Evan. Oh, and what's the last thing you remember?" She tried to keep from saying the obvious, not wanting to worry someone anymore, but it was clear there was some sort of pattern about bullying Evan. It was too weird to happen twice, but it would make sense if Powder and Izzy were behind it.

Even worse, if they're truly working with her mom, then now she'd know everything. They called her out as she was mind-controlled! Somebody knew they were onto something. "Glad to have you back," she said, lowly. Dawn stared out the window. "So, what do we wanna do, then? Find an escape route, or start looking for more people to join us?"

"I just remember feeling really, really pissed," Sage murmured thoughtfully. She pointed to Evan. "I think it was about something you said."
"Sounds about right," he gave her an odd, sad smile. "But I don't think it's important now. Let's just move on to planning our way out of here."
"I think we should recruit more people to join us," Avery stated. "The more superpowers on our side, the better."
"But more people means more weak links," Evan pointed out. "More chances to get ratted out to the Adjudicator."
"True," Avery nodded. "But weren't you the one sneaking around making friends at 1 am?"
"That's different," Evan said quickly. "I wasn't trying to recruit Astrid. It just sort of...happened."
"Through your astoundingly charming personality, no doubt," Sage raised her eyebrows at him. He scowled.
"I can't tell if you're joking or not," he muttered.
"Joking. It's a joke," Sage caught herself when she saw his bitter expression. "Sorry."
"It's fine," Evan tilted his head, studying her with narrow eyes. "Although that makes me wonder...how often can we be mind-controlled? Is there a cooldown period or can they just, like, jump right back into our brains?"

Dawn smiled to herself. At least she was right. Evan could make friends on his own. Hopefully that helped with Avery's stress. Also, it felt good to be right about something for once.

"Well, even if they can, I think we'd notice rather quickly. Plus, if we vomit that gooey stuff out, wouldn't that mean the effects next time wouldn't be as strong? Or maybe it's gone altogether?" she suggested. In reality, she was pulling her assumptions from thin air. Dawn was so used to having her mother have the answer to everything, but now that idea was challenged and proven wrong, so she could finally think for herself. Except thinking was pretty hard after realizing her mom had complete control over her thoughts and beliefs. Dawn scratched the side of her head.

"I think we should talk to this Astrid kid first. They sound... social. They might know some people," she said, slumping over slightly. "I hope that's the right move," she whispered under her breath. Hopefully nobody heard that. She couldn't help but stare out the window.

.

"Hey, Powder?" Jonathan said, looking up from his book for the first time in hours, "Are you alright? You've been in a trance for a while."

Powder rubbed his head and cringed as he woke up. It was always so jarring, going from his brain to someone else's. It wasn't even like that, really. It was more so... giving someone strong mental suggestions while seeing through their eyes. Then suddenly he'd be yanked right out of it. "Yeah, I'm fine." Powder slowly brought himself from a crisscross on his bed to standing floor. He looked up at Jonathan from his bunk. "What are you reading?"

"Not sure," he hummed, flipping the page calmly. He blew a stand of black hair out of his face, but a part of it got snagged in his glasses. "I just picked it up at the school library. Something about mediaeval torture devices."

"Oh my God, Jon!" Powder exclaimed, holding his shirt tightly, "Why is that even in the school library?!"

"It was in the history section," he calmly explained, looking down at Powder with electric green eyes, "Plus, Prodgies were seen as witches back then. It's good to know what our ancestors went through and appreciate what we have now, kid."

Powder put his hands on his hips and sighed, "I'll never understand you, Jon. You're so... you." Jonathan wasn't much of a smiler, but Powder thought he saw a small lift on his face. "Anyways, I'm gonna go have breakfast with Izzy. You're welcome to come!"

Jonathan politely shook his head. "I'd rather not hang out with a bunch of middle-schoolers, thank you."

"Hey! Izzy's a freshman!"

"Still not a great look. Besides, what makes you believe I'd ever want to hang out with your master?"

"Izzy's not my master! She's more like a big sister," Powder said, cheeks pink from embarrassment. "I simply idolize her."

"Yeah, which is totally a great example considering you have a little sister who goes here, too, might I add."

Powder gave up from then, huffing and puffing as he stormed off. Jonathan shrugged in response. He yawned, rubbed his white, scarred eye, the iris unmoving as he looked away, and went back to reading.